Bill Belichick Fined A Whopping 50 Grand

It's only three weeks in to the NFL season, and already there has been so much drama between players, refs, and coaches that it's hard to imagine what things will be like once the Superbowl comes around.

With replacement refs taking over the games temporarily, things have been sheer chaos on the field (Seahawks game, anyone?) as lack of communication dominates and gets the players and their coaches riled up. Of course, this being a social media world, some of the players are getting themselves into trouble by talking smack on forums like Twitter, but one coach couldn't wait that long and grabbed a ref in an attempt to get him to talk about his call. His efforts earned him a $50,000 fine.

Bill Belichick, head of the New England Patriots, has been reprimanded with the fine for "making contact with a game official" after Sunday night's loss to the Ravens. He has acknowledged in a statement that he understands what he did wrong, but also said on Monday night that he just wanted an explanation for a call, and that communication is key in the game.

"It was inappropriate for me to contact the official. I take responsibility for what happened," Belichick said. "I accept the discipline and I apologize for the incident Sunday night in Baltimore."

The coach says he's been in the game a long time, and has never had a problem like this before.

"I've coached in this league a long time," Belichick said. "I've never been penalized, never had any incidents with officials or anything like that. I have never meant any disrespect or in any way tried to abuse or be disrespectful to the officials and the job that they do. I was trying to get an explanation for obviously an important call/play in that game. That's the No. 1 thing between coaches and officials, it's always at the forefront, just communication of what's going on and what's happening."

Kyle Shanahan, offensive coordinator for the Washington Redskins, was also hit with a fine after he berated an official after his team's loss. After today's news that the ref deal is close to being made, nearly audible sighs of relief could be heard by sports fans everywhere.